


Pragmatic (and Other Adjectives)

by pyrrhical (anoyo)



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-28 02:35:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10821969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anoyo/pseuds/pyrrhical
Summary: There were a lot of adjectives that, in their day, had been applied to Jim Kirk the man, the son, the brother, the lover.





	Pragmatic (and Other Adjectives)

**Author's Note:**

> An old prompt fic, rescued from my email. Written 2/26/10.

There were a lot of adjectives that, in their day, had been applied to Jim Kirk the man, the son, the brother, the lover. Some were good, some bad, but they all, in essence, were. When it really hit Kirk that he was a Starship Captain -- that more than just his own life was held in his hands, and damn if that wasn't a sobering concept -- he threw them all out the window.

If they'd applied before, it didn't matter. He had to figure out which would apply to Jim Kirk the Starship Captain. 

As it turned out, more adjectives returned than left for good, a fact that surprised Kirk more than it honestly surprised anyone else (when they were really, truly honest with themselves, and nowhere within comprehension-range of Kirk himself). When it came to new adjectives, Kirk allowed a great deal that he had once scoffed as absurd or "just not me" to become just as important as any others.

The list surprised him, sometimes.

Other times, it didn't. At those times, he could think back, to the kid he'd once been, quiet and rule-abiding and more brilliant than anyone knew what to do with. Really, all Kirk had done was take the long dead, pragmatic child that he had been, dust him off, and admit, through a less painful than he'd imagined shrugging off of his adolescent bravado, to the truth that still lay within him of that child's personality.

Kirk had always been a Starship Captain. As multifaceted as he was, he was always able to pull the right face -- the right adjective-laden Kirk -- out to face whatever situation his crew could find themselves in, and he could find a way to fix it. In another life, he had known that it was his first, and best, destiny, to be a Starship Captain.

In this life, Kirk would prove that Captaincy has little to do with rank, and more to do with an innate ability to pull that leadership ability from within, despite public opinion and lack of practical experience. He would prove that it was the spirit of a man that made him Captain more than any given credential.

In either life, the other Kirk's success would have surprised neither of them. No matter their histories, no matter their ascendencies; neither Kirk believed in a no-win scenario.

It was the true merit of their destiny that, through interaction with either one of them, no other soul would come out the other side of any scrape, no matter how death-defying, truly believing in the unwinnable. Not even when death was not defied. That was the belief that a Starship Captain in any universe could create.

And Kirk pressed it into the air around him just by breathing. It was nearly impossible, after dealing with Kirk, to imagine anything going any way other than the way he wanted. Because, well, you wanted it, too. No one can lose heart, in those circumstances of utter faith.


End file.
